Fire burns 1,200 acres on Navy island

Live-fire training makes blazes routine on San Clemente Is.

A 1,200-acre fire broke out on Navy-owned San Clemente Island at about 2 p.m. Wednesday due to training.

A Navy spokesman said fires in the bombardment area on the island’s south side are fairly routine. Fire breaks encircle the land reserved for bombing and contain the threat, said Lt. Michael Smith of the Coronado Naval Base command.

No people or structures were in danger. The only Navy personnel living on San Clemente are on the other side of the 56-square-mile island, which is 70 miles off San Diego.

Sailors aren’t the only inhabitants, however. The Navy spends more than $7 million a year to protect the island’s endangered or threatened species, which include 10 federally listed animals and plants. Last fall, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service said it was considering delisting or downgrading the status of three protected species because they were flourishing.

For a decade, the Navy and Marine Corps were limited in the number of days a week they could use the island, and some incendiary devices were banned in certain conditions because fires sparked might burn habitat of the rare San Clemente loggerhead shrike.

After the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service issued a new biological opinion in 2008 — and the Navy authored a new fire control plan based on response times and models that predict how fires will behave — the restrictions have lifted considerably.

Smith said this fire was noticeable from the San Diego coast because of Wednesday’s clear conditions. Usually fires on San Clemente are obscured by the marine layer.